[GNC] Can a bank account have sub-accounts?

[Vincent Dawans]

Michael:

My bad for saying "typically". I didn't mean to say that the other
solutions presented don't work. And certainly if required to be both held
in a different bank account with each allowed transaction paid from that
account then it should be, that depends on local requirements and or types
of funds. But it seems in this case it's not a requirement since
specifically they say they only have one bank account. In that case I have
definitely used analytical dimensions for that. I attach both donations and
expenses related to a particular restricted use to a specific analytical
dimension. Then by running a transaction report on that dimension, I report
both on revenues and expenses related to that use, and get the remaining
balance left. One advantage of this technique is that it doesn't matter
where the allowed expenses are paid from (for instance if they are paid
from several bank accounts, via a credit card, cash box, etc).

I have also used this technique where the restricted funds cannot be booked
as income until they are spent, in order to retrieve the list of allowed
expenses to be billed to the fund on a quarterly or yearly basis or
whatever. It's not this case here, just showing how various requirements
call for different solutions. In that case the restriction takes the form
of a liability account that is only reduced when "billed" against at which
point the equivalent corresponding income is booked and liability reduced.
The billing itself is done by tracking specific allowed transactions
analytically. So definitely more than one way to skin a cat but it's very
much situation dependent. Not trying to criticize any other solutions, just
sharing my own experience, but also a lot of my uses are in specific
countries and it might not work in others.

--Vincent


On Wed, Mar 15, 2023, 07:18 Michael or Penny Novack <
stepbystepfarm at comcast.net> wrote:

> On 3/13/2023 5:47 PM, Vincent Dawans wrote:
> > This sort of fund accounting is typically taken care of by using the
> > analytical dimension feature offered by some accounting softwares.
> > Unfortunately gnuCash doesn't have that feature (yet).
> > Here is an article somewhat explaining how it works (for a different
> > accounting package):
> >
> https://www.bakertilly.com/insights/tame-your-wild-not-for-profit-chart-of-accounts-with-dimensions
>
> That was not the situation this person was asking about.
>
> Non-profits often have "restricted" donations, funds donated that are
> only usable for certain purposes. That restriction can be formal/legal,
> in which case really should be kept in a segregated account. But a small
> non-profit might have not enough to bother with that and might have some
> funds only "morally restricted" (can, in emergencies, used for other
> purposes).
>
> Even when restricted funds kept in a separate account, if a small
> org/small amounts the several restricted funds might be kept in a single
> account.
>
> Michael D Novack (who has been treasurer of several 501(c)3 orgs
>
>
>